Spelunking into Ezreal's Gameplay: Words from a Beta Player

"We're talking about changes for Ezreal in a future patch, but the intent wouldn't be to nerf him or dramatically change his power - we think 'botlane' ezreal's been pretty weak for a while and want to find some improvements to him there specifically." - Scarizard

Source

Hello, Riot and Rioters. Kouga here. I've popped on the boards a few different times, to talk about How things have changed since Beta, or My own idea for in-game "achievements" before the Mastery system was publicly announced. Today I sit before you, typing away furiously to speak on a topic very close to my heart. If Ezreal is going to see changes, I'd like to make a few points known. I realize this is a rather far-reaching discussion for what may, in the end, just be some numbers adjustments. But since Ezreal has been back on the forefront with his dominating RuneGlaive build (before items were, once again, changed around him. Hello IBG) it seemed like a good time to talk about him.

Ezreal - the Prodigal Explorer

Disclaimers & Forewarnings First off, a few items. No, I am not a pro player. I am probably not even a particularly high-tier player; I stopped playing Ranked a while back, mostly because I no longer have the daily time to commit to mastering this ever-changing game. Instead I play for fun, I play with friends, but I still also enjoy analyzing League from a mechanical perspective, examining gameplay quirks, kit designs, and ability interactions. So I am coming to this with more than just Fanboy bias but rather from how I think the character can be best served.

So - let's talk Ezreal First let's talk about theme & fantasy before we go into any specific mechanical considerations. These are things that drew me, as a player, to Ezreal. They may not have done the same for you, but I can't speak for anyone else.

Ezreal - A Spell-Slinging Slacker In his original lore, Ez was something of an underachieving genius; he's the kind of student that I imagine didn't study because he didn't need to. He gets away with the bare minimum that is required of him and then he goes and explores ancient ruins and caves because that is what he wants to do. Even his "magic gauntlet" bit fits into this idea; he trips over it and ends up with a high level of magic with the least amount of effort. That said, he still seeks achievement, recognition, and he still relishes the opportunity to show off; he may be a slacker but he still is a prodigy. Ezreal enjoys sniping an enemy across the map, tagging them with a Q for a last-hit through fog of war or between the enemy team. That brings me to my first tenant:

#Ezreal must keep his kit 100% skillshot based

Thankfully, due to Riot's love affair with skill shots this is probably not going to be a problem.

He used to be considered "High Mobility". lol A part of Ezreal, both in theme and kit, that I think has lost its shine is the idea of him being a "High Mobility" kiting carry. If you look at his kit, literally 100% of his "safety" and "mobility" come from his E, Arcane Gate. Don't get me wrong, its a great ability. As an Ezreal main I know I can pretty safely trade even against Blitz, since timing his E right will let me move even as I get grabbed, and not get pulled. I'll admit, it feels a little cheap sometimes, but considering how much of his safe/mobile budget comes from that I'm okay with it.

#If Ezreal is intended to be a Mobile carry, he needs actual mobility.

A short-CD flash is great and all - and when Ezreal was released, it definitely made him "mobile", but the landscape has changed. Gap-closers are everywhere, slows and CC up the wazoo are to be expected in most games. Due to Ezreal's very low base MS and complete lack of CC, the only thing he has going for him at this point is his E. The key point here: Ezreal is only "safe & mobile" because of his range and his blink. This can give him a strong early game - practically immune to all but the most tenacious of ganks due to being able to sit back and blink to his tower or support. But late game that is going to be less powerful as enemies are more comfortable diving him and there is less overall map safety.

How to give him mobility? A few ways this could be done. The easiest way, IMO, is to change his passive from a stacking AS boost to a stacking MS boost. Why does Ezreal even have an AS-steroid in his passive? It does literally nothing for AP Ezreal, and its power for AD Ezreal is mitigated by the fact that in order to use it, he has to go into his AA range, which then negates much of his "safe mobility" because he isn't using his long range. That is how easy it could be:

Rising Spell Force: Ezreal gains 10% bonus attack speed movement speed for 6 seconds every time he hits a target with his abilities, stacking up to 5 times.

Done. Now he has a decent amount of mobility; and one that rewards his ability to stay at range and poke at his opponents. Another option - give him a decaying MS boost after he uses his E. Although this, again, dumps all of his mobility budget into one ability which I don't like. One way or another though, he needs something to keep himself moving, dodging in and out of the battlefield and slinging spells every which way. Now something else I touched on earlier is that he needs this mobility/safety increase because he only has one blink and no CC. This is a big deal. Ezreal has 0 CC - which means he's always a risky proposition because he is only contributing damage from a very squishy, relatively immobile source. However, that said,

#I am okay with Ezreal lacking CC, so long as his kit compensates

Again, for me, being a "No CC, All Skillshot" carry makes me feel awesome when I actually win. I have to rely heavily on proper positioning, team coordination, item choice. As Ezreal, I feel like I have to outplay my opponent, taking into consideration their own CC or danger windows. And I'm okay with that. It's why I play Ezreal. In fact I might as well make that another bold point:

#I play Ezreal precisely BECAUSE he lacks CC, relies on Skillshots, and feels like, when he does well, he is capitalizing on personal skill.

Personally, I don't feel like I'm "outplaying" as Caitlyn when we trade well, both halves leave, but because I have her Ultimate, I can snipe her from a place of safety and watch as my enemy can do very little to survive. Boom, headshot, I won. BigPlay$.... no. It just feels kind of hollow. "oh ho ho! You thought you could just walk away from Caitlyn!" (Not picking on Cait mains, just needed a scapegoat for this example). Alright, next.

#I enjoy that Ezreal can be played as both AP & AD

While I wish his kit was more forgiving to this end, I enjoy that flexibility. However, keeping that flexibility with the current kit he has in live means that both AD/AP are weaker than either one should be. AD suffers from Essence Flux being a No-Point Wonder and he has quite a lot of AP ratios on his kit (4 AP ratios versus just 1 AD ratio). AP suffers from his passive being useless, heavy mana costs in his early game, and having to "all in" a bit harder than AD Ezreal. However both are fun in their own right. But consider this: considering how much of his "power budget" is lost to either AD or AP Ezreal, both are still fun to play. I mean, AD Ezreal isn't even that viable of an ADC in a traditional sense (more on that later), on top of the fact that he loses out on his AP strength, but he can still be played like that. I have gone into games and destroyed in bot lane simply because I have played him long enough to understand every pixel of his projectiles, every unit of his ranges, but sometimes I feel like I had no right doing that well when I'm only playing with 3/4 of a Champion.

#And last: For Ezreal to be a competitive ADC, he NEEDS a better way to scale in the late game

This is the biggest issue with Ezreal. Ezreal does not scale as well with Crit as other ADCs. With few exceptions, ADCs do their job by being able to deal constant, high-DPS pressure via Crits. If they can't, they have some other way of dealing this high-level of persistent damage (i.e., Vayne's silver bolts). Ezreal, however, is entirely reliant on his spells. Primarily Q if he's AD, W if he's AP, with his ult for either team-wide damage or last-hitting low health targets. He synergizes so well with Triforce/Lich Bane that its practically a required item, which diverts him from the usual IE/PD style of builds that other ADs have. Without late-game scaling, Ezreal can't compete in a 1v1 against another carry, unless he kites them to death or can front-load his damage by surprising them and unloading his whole kit.

So Ezreal, since he doesn't do well by building crits, needs some kind of alternative damage source that 1) doesn't skew his early game too much and 2) allows him to keep up in the late game. This could be built into a passive, either replacing his current one or attached to an ability (maybe attached to his Ultimate as a passive, so it doesn't hit him until 6). Something like

Gauntlet Overclocking: "Every X spells that hit an enemy unit, Ezreal's next Basic Attack deals Y damage".

Make it so his Q doesn't proc it, only his AAs (like GP's new passive rework). This would encourage him towards the whole "weaving spells & AAs" theme, which would have a greater cohesion with masteries, and if the scaling was base rather than AD/AP ratio, it would give him power for both AD and AP builds. You could also make it so it only stacks on enemy Champions hit, so he can't build it up on minions and instead forces him to trade properly. His Q is cheap enough that he can use that for building stacks without draining himself dry. And late game it might add the additional damage to keep him competitive. That's just one idea; Riot probably could come up with better ones.

So, I've done a lot of talking. If you're still reading, I'll be shocked. Thanks for sticking it out, and feel free to leave comments below!

-K